Singapore's NTU ties up with AI company SenseTime to launch new program for PhD researchers

Singapore's Nanyang Technological University has announced that they have tied up with the one of the biggest artificial intelligence (AI) company, SenseTime and launched the SenseTime-NTU Talent Programme.

In a news release, the university stated that the collaboration, supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) will help to nurture researchers working at the forefront of AI-related fields such as deep learning and computer vision.

Under NTU's Industrial Postgraduate Programme (IPP), the joint program will see "selected PhD candidates earn their postgraduate degree at NTU while working on SenseTime's research projects."

The research project will include areas related to deep learning, an aspect of AI that is concerned with emulating the learning approach that humans use to gain certain types of knowledge, as well as computer vision, which involves computers identifying and processing images like human vision does, and providing the appropriate output, action or analysis. It should be noted that candidates may also get an opportunity to carry out research at SenseTime's facilities in other cities.

Vice President of Strategy at SenseTime, Jeff Shi said, "With our tremendous R&D and commercialisation experience in AI, we deeply understand that one key factor to success is talent.

"Through the SenseTime-NTU Talent Programme, SenseTime aims to cultivate a batch of local AI experts who would help drive the country forward in the AI era. Leveraging our expertise in AI, we hope not only to develop potential AI experts but also to enrich the ecosystem in Singapore by advancing AI technology together with local communities as well as public and private sectors."

Founded in 2014 in Hong Kong, the technology company has developed a wide range of AI technologies, which includes face recognition, image recognition, object recognition, video analysis and autonomous driving. In 2018, Ministry of Science and Technology of China assigned SenseTime to establish the National Open Innovation Platform for Next-Generation AI on Intelligent Vision, making the company the 5th national AI platform in China.

However, Singapore's NTU is also recognised as one of the best universities in Asia and it is known as a leading university in AI research. NTU also ranked second by Nikkei and Elsevier for having the most-cited research papers in AI and data science, after computer giant Microsoft.

While talking about the collaboration, NTU Provost and Vice President (Academic) Professor Ling San said that AI and digital technology "play indispensable roles in the future economy. The SenseTime-NTU Talent Programme will give our PhD students a rigorous environment to learn and apply new knowledge and ideas. At the same time, they will also gain valuable skillsets from close interactions with the industrial mentors at SenseTime."